Anti-cancer agents are used as medication therapy for cancer patients. However, such anti-cancer agents are toxic to normal tissues as well as cancer tissues, limiting the application thereof.
Cisplation (or cis-diammine-dichloroplatinum [II]), an exemplary anti-cancer agent, is widely used in clinical practice as a chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of ovarian cancer, bladder cancer, lung cancer, head and neck cancer, testicular cancer, and the like (Rosenberg B., Cancer, 55:2303-2315, 1985). Cisplatin is known to attack cancer cells by producing active oxygen species, and exhibit anti-cancer effects by inducing inter-intrastrand cross-linking of DNA and the DNA adduct formation in cancer cells. However, it has been reported that adverse events such as hearing loss, neurotoxicity, and renal toxicity arise if the dose of the drug exceeds a pre-determined limit during treatment, and also hepatic toxicity is frequently observed when high concentration cisplatin is administered. These adverse events by cisplatin are closely related to the increased lipid peroxidation due to active oxygen species produced by cisplatin, inhibition of the antioxidation enzyme activity present in the tissue, depletion of glutathione, and collapse of intracellular calcium homeostasis.
Recently, it has been observed that cisplatin-induced renal toxicity is effectively inhibited if cisplatin and glutathione ester are administered together (Babu E. et al., Mol. Cell Biochem., 144: 7-11, 1995), and much interest is drawn to inhibiting the toxicity of cisplatin by ingestion of antioxidants in diet.
Meanwhile, Ceriporia lacerata is a kind of white-rotting fungus and known to conduct co-metabolism, i.e., lignin decomposition, in order to use carbon sources such as cellulose, hemi-cellulose, other polysaccharides, and glycerol, etc., in the ecosystem.
Regarding the medicinal use of Ceriporia lacerata or an extract thereof, only the use for diabetic treatment of the extract of the culture medium of Ceriporia lacerata is known by Korean Patent No. 10-1031605 filed by the present inventors, and there has been no report on the use of Ceriporia lacerata for protecting a kidney.